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Who
will care for us then? Better jobs abroad for Filipinos may mean better pay. A welcome development, says our government. But this could have its own peculiar – if not alarming – consequences. Filipinos have now found another way to pursue the great American (or Canadian) dream. After exhausting the employment scene for domestic helpers and construction job openings, our professionals and skilled workers are now eagerly scouting for care-giver posts. Estimates show that in the next two years, Filipino caregivers will dot every part of the world and will reach over half a million. Live-in or hospital-based care-giving is taking the place of Japayukis, DHs and the Middle East construction workers of past decades. I’m not sure if this speaks well of the service sector’s export competitiveness or something grim about our future. But what rings true today is that as we enter the 21st century, our professionals and skilled workers continue to migrate to foreign lands to earn a respectable living. If not for the dollar remittances of our overseas Filipino workers, the Philippines would have long been thrown into the dung heap of misfortune that other countries with similar politics and economies currently find themselves in. Strong Demand Continues At present, there are nearly 200,000 Filipino caregivers mostly in North America and parts of Europe. Demand for caregivers, luckily for Filipinos, has continued to grow. Care-giving as a legitimate profession has earned popularity among our middle-class professionals in 1999, and more so after the Canadian government introduced its Live-in Caregivers Program that allowed caregivers to earn immigrant status after working there for two years. A caregiver earns an average monthly income equivalent to between P30,000 to P80,000 in Canada and the US, excluding bonuses. If these earnings are plowed back to the Philippine economy, then good. But immigrant caregivers naturally spend a big part of the money earned in their adoptive country. While a substantial part of an immigrant caregiver’s income goes to taxes, the children get free education (only up to high school) and the immediate family enjoys free medical services (medicines, medical and dental, and medical insurance). Most of all, they enjoy the conveniences of living in a highly-developed country with its easy credit facilities to buy a family car and a house and provide a Western education for the children. Factories Of Caregivers While demand for Asian caregivers continues, Westerners reportedly still prefer Filipinos for their "natural hospitality" and communication skills. Over the last five years, the number of accredited caregivers‚ training centers in the country has grown to over 300, and perhaps around that same number as well for fly-by-night operations. Even universities such as the Philippine Women’s have begun offering the course as part of regular curriculum. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) cites that the numerous job ads in the Internet and local dailies indicate the growing demand for caregivers in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Traditional enclaves for Filipino caregivers, however, will remain the US, Canada, and other developed European countries. In the US alone, demand for caregivers was estimated at 700,000 last year. The US spent about $115 billion for care-giving services in 1997, and are spending even more today. With that, the thriving care-giving industry now rivals the country’s garments quota to the US in terms of value. Care-giving in the US has included not only looking after the needs of the young or older people but also people afflicted with AIDS. Are our caregivers rightfully protected and compensated for such risky assignment? More Vanishing Professionals The downside of this upsurge in demand by other countries of "care-givers" is that our professional health delivery sector is getting drained of licensed doctors (who are taking up extra academic credits in care-giving to qualify), midwives (who would rather earn than just be hailed as "our heroes in rural health care") and dentists (not because tooth-decays are not prevalent here). I’m beginning to fear for the quality and future of our own health care-giving services if we continue losing our nurses, doctors and even dentists to jobs abroad considering that this new brain drain threat that is just starting. Losing Them For Good More alarming is the fact that our nursing graduates from the country’s top university are training their sights to building a career abroad rather than in the country. We could end up with an education system that panders to taking care not of our people but of elders in other countries. The government may want to think that overseas Filipino workers are migratory, going abroad for work but always returning after a set time to his family. But with more Filipinos thinking that there is nothing to look forward to here in the Philippines, migration patterns may shift to emigration. When this happens, those precious dollars and other foreign exchange currencies will also eventually stop flowing into the economy.
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